for a past Senator

Dear Senator Salazar:

I oppose any attempt by Congress to disrupt or question or impugn the profits of oil companies. If they are profiting from the recent disturbances caused by the hurricanes, it is because our energy infrastructure is not allowed to pursue profits and attract investors in a more conventional way. Such investment and profits would give the entire economy the clear signals necessary for them to anticipate disasters and the better to position themselves to withstand the effects of such disasters. The oil companies deserve what little blip in their bottom lines this "windfall" has given them. So do the people who have invested in them.

Bringing farmers in to testify before Congress about high energy prices is hardly wisdom. Farmers have received, and continue to receive, obscene subsidies that easily offset the high energy prices that they experience. The US government caused those high energy prices because the worldwide demand for oil has increased while US supply of oil has been artificially held constant and distribution systems are forced to cater to a fragmented market.

You would do everyone a favor not by trouping through the "suffererers," but by opening Congress to the people who had the forethought to invest in oil, and to invest in uncertainty, to invest in life as we know it every day. Once you've welcomed these investors and entrepreneurs to testify, listen to what they have to say.

If you have but one shred of decency, keep Uncle Sam's hands off of oil shale. It will prosper on its own if it is left unsullied. Leave this resource in private hands and open to private investment, and our dependence on foreign oil will diminish. For oil shale to succeed, all you, and Congress, have to do is nothing.

I am generally skeptical about the USA-PATRIOT Act and the level of discretion it appears to give to the Federal government over investigation of non-state actors. I am concerned that this Act is used overwhelmingly to prosecute the Wars on Drugs, guns, and pornography, and it is toothless in pursuit of genuine non-state Islamic terrorists. I'd just as soon trash it as revise or limit it.

From what I have read about Samuel Alito and his past rulings, I think he will make a sound and acceptable Supreme Court justice, and you should vote to confirm him.

Respectfully,
Fusilier N. Pundit
Your future colleague and former constituent